A bad design is a good reminder | Hacker News Reader

A bad design is a good reminder

37signals.com

97 pointsrevorad29 comments

Update... The architect just called and explained what happened. It appears the custom kickplate at the bottom is covering up the light that reflects off the floor when the machine is on. It was supposed to have been notched out, but that detail was missed by the millworker. No problem – it’ll all be taken care of.

I still feel as if a small red dot on the floor isn't enough warning that "this door will get you wet". Especially for guests. It should lock or do a better job turning off quickly as it is opened.

It's definitely not a small dot: http://imgur.com/iMd4x. That is large and bright enough to be noticeable, and anyone should be able to tell that that means "ON".

It would be instructive to see an actual image, rather than an illustration.

Ask JF.

Maybe he can give us a follow-up after his gets fixed? =)

So is this because he reads your blog, or because you gave them a ring? Would be funny if it were the former.

It'd be funnier if they weren't originally associated with building 37 Signals' offices. It'd be hard not to become a fan of 37signals if you were responsible for building out their entire place.

Like seeing a C-list celebrity in person and shaking their hand - odds are, the next time you see one of their movies, you'll have a special place in your heart for what they do, even if it, previously, was of no interest to you.

The ability to open up a running dish washer with so little effort (regardless of light) seems like a pretty serious design defect to me.

Every time I read something like this I think about Donald Norman's "The Design of Everyday Things", although it was first published in the 80s, we have yet to fully learn its lessons.

Every time I pull on a door handle when I should be pushing, I think of that book. Fantastic read.

Better design: if I open my dishwasher while it's running, the interior action immediately stops and water has never splashed out.

I have a silent dishwasher that I sometimes mistakenly open and this is how it responds. Everything cuts off immediately.

That's how every dishwasher I ever owned used to work. And it's actually a feature: you can add stuff that you forgot to put in after it starts, and you can take something out, when you need it immediately, and wash it manually.

This hits home for me since I just finished reading The Design of Everyday Things. The two improvements that Jason suggests can be traced back to some core design principles that Donald Norman lays out in his book:

1. An indicator to inform the user of the object's current state. Based on the comments in the original post, it seems that the dishwasher actually does have an indicator light but for some reason it was accidentally covered up.

2. A forcing function, which is meant to constrain user actions in order to prevent error and/or guide the user toward the intended behavior.

The integrated dishwasher I installed in my previous apartment had a red light shining down on the floor when it was on. The only bad part was that it didn't turn into a green light when it was done. Otherwise, pretty much perfect.

First thing that come to my mind after reading that blog post. I guess that kind of light is pretty standard for dishwashers.

this remind me of a glass door we had. Glass was so clean, and there was no handle, people often used to hit either on the wrong side, or worse used to think there is no door and hit into the glass as they walk.

There is a map in Nagoya station in an alcove. The map is a work of art, so they put a glass pane across the alcove. Unfortunately, this compromises the art's utility as a map, and many travelers (particularly foreigners) don't realize that it is ten feet from the information desk that has real maps. This led to a lot of people leaning into the alcove to see the detail on the map, causing lots of head banging on the glass.

They eventually fixed this by a ranging for an artistic arrangement of dots on the glass, which appear suspended in air over the alcove and clue people in that there is glass. The new problem? People try to touch the dots, so the glass is now smudgy for most of the day, which predictably drives the janitors nuts.

When did a blank wall of brushed aluminum cabinets become accepted as aesthetically pleasing outside of banker's penthouses in Manhattan? What are you planning on doing, killing a hooker in there?

Minimalist design: I'm a fan.

Up next, on our tour of faaaaaaabulous homes, we have the Army's biowarfare lab at Fort Detrick...

That's not good design, that's just the esthetics.

It's easy to make a steel plate with a handle, but design should incorporate usability (notification LED, for example) and safety (locking mechanism). Without those it's just pretty bad design.

The article says it is bad design. You have just repeated what the article said. Furthermore, I don't think good aesthetics is easy at all.

Definitely a good reminder to not buy a dishwasher that look s identical to the cabinet next to it, yes.

Okay, if you purchase and keep around a machine that sprays you with hot soapy water... you are a design snob. Or, more likely, you're just using something as an extended metaphor. Can you REALLY not know when it's on? Or is it just for the purposes of this article. They love to take literary liberties at 37Signals. I can imagine it happening a few times, but it's likely there is some indication that it's on and a slight bit of attention paid to that keeps you from making the same mistake.

Just leaving your hand on the handle for another 2 seconds would probably feel warm or a very slight vibration.

I'm having a guilty-pleasure chuckle right now because the "kings" of UI are getting sloshed with soapy water because of a bad design decision :)

I'm with the both of you. It might be an unfortunately uninformative design, that doesn't mean you have to rely 100% on design to accept a little bit of responsible attention to detail and feel the door and check for movement inside to tell you the thing is still running.

Their criticism stems more from the "don't make me think" philosophy. If you're quickly fetching something from the kitchen, it's totally understandable if your mind is elsewhere. It's not so much that it's impossible to know if it's on, it's that it could be much, much more obvious.

This is analogous to a row of unlabeled buttons that only show their meaning on hover. Sure, if the user stopped for a moment and surveyed the scene, it would be possible to know what everything does. But to what end? There are no benefits and the cost is high: you interrupt the user's train of thought. More on that:

http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/help-your-train-of-thought-i...

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